I Opened my Eyes, and There You Were
by Ms. Redd
Summary: He's probably the last person anyone would have ever expected Rachel Berry to be with. Hell, he's the last person he would have expected Rachel Berry to be with. Notice how he didn't say she was the last person he saw himself with? She wasn't. Sometimes, the unexpected can be the best thing you could hope for.


_**A/N: So, I'm not sure exactly where this came from. Okay, maybe I am. I'm a 'Glee' whore. There, I said it. And yes, my little Puckleberry heart cried the entire time I was writing this.**_

He's probably the last person anyone would have ever expected Rachel Berry to be with. Hell, he's the last person _he _would have expected Rachel Berry to be with. (_Notice how he didn't say she was the last person he saw himself with? She wasn't._) He figures people will probably assume it has something to do with the fact that Finn came to him the day after he put her on a train to New York and asked Sam to 'take care of her.' He looked at Finn, his teammate, housemate, and generally one of his best friends, like he was crazy for a second before reminding him that Rachel was going to New York in the fall (_could he really have forgotten that, considering?_) and that Sam still had another year at McKinley. Then Finn looked at him like he was the crazy one and said, "Yeah, but she won't need help then. She'll have New York. I mean this summer, ya know, until she leaves." And that was how Sam found out not only that Finn really was doing what he was doing because he loved her so much and wanted what was best for her and would always try to look out for her (_he already knew that, really_), but that he was leaving in like, a day and a half. He guesses in a way that is what got the ball rolling, but it was a _really _long roll, and he wasn't sure he could actually attribute _them _to that.

He knows everyone always thought that if Rachel was going to be with anyone from Lima who wasn't Finn, it would be Puck. And she was, too, for a couple months there at the end of that summer and the beginning of her freshman year. But then they decided that it maybe wasn't right how much they enjoyed fighting and yelling and calling each other names, so they went back to being best friends, where it somehow seemed less wrong. (_He didn't quite see how that made sense, but whatever. He was probably a little too happy when he found out they broke up and didn't call either of them on it when they told him about it like, five minutes apart._) They did fight like, all the time, but even when he knew Puck was actually pissed, he never got that really nasty spark in his eye like he did when the hockey players tried to pick a fight or spat hurtful words at her the way Sam had seen him do with Santana. And Rachel never got that look like somebody kicked her puppy that she had gotten when she and Finn fought. That pretty much told him he didn't have to take the fights too seriously.

He kept his promise to Finn to watch over Rachel, so he saw how the whole thing went down, beginning to end. He thought it was all kinds of wrong how nasty Kurt and Mercedes were when it all started, acting like she was some kind of slut or something. It wasn't like that at all, and Sam knew it. It was kind of weird that the only other person who seemed to be actively on her side (because a lot of the others were still nice to her and stuff, but kept their opinions on that particular matter to themselves) was Quinn. He got the feeling there was a lot of stuff going on there he didn't quite get, though, and Rachel seemed really happy to have Quinn around, so he didn't ever question it. Besides, he thought then (_and knows now_) that Quinn suspected the same thing that he did, which was that Puck was really only doing the same thing they both were, just in his own Puck way. The fact that it's been years and they are still best friends tells him they were right.

When Finn first came into his room, eyes red and puffy and hands picking at the end of his tie, and asked Sam to, "Take care of her, please. Just … just make sure she's okay. Don't let her sit and cry and be sad alone," he had no clue what exactly Finn wanted from him.

Less than two days later, when Carol was waiting in the car to take him to the recruiting center to get on a bus to Georgia, Finn grabbed him into a rough hug and whispered hoarsely, "Remember dude, you promised," and Sam still had no clue. He was pretty sure Finn didn't want him to _date _Rachel, or else he probably just would have gone to Puck (_and also, that would be weird – the part about Finn asking him to_). And if he thought she needed ice cream and shopping and sappy movies, he could've asked Kurt, so Sam figured that was out too. He really hoped he figured it out before Rachel came home the next week, because he did promise. And he liked Rachel – she was cool, and sweet most of the time, and she had never made fun of him for any of the stuff other people did – so he kind of wanted to just do it for her, too.

He didn't want to bombard her or anything, so he didn't go over the day she and her dads came home. Late the next morning though, he was standing on her doorstep with his guitar, a box of vegan cupcakes that he drove to Spencerville for, a dvd of _Dazed and Confused_ (and _How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days_, just in case he was wrong about that whole sappy movie thing), and his best McConaughey impression. It took him a while, but he managed to pull an actual, genuine smile out of her before he had to leave for work, and when he was backing out of her house doing a pretty kickass acoustic version of 'Call me Maybe' as he went, he was pretty sure there was even a tiny little giggle in there. That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the summer, and even though he tried to get her out of the house more, and a decent amount of their time was spent with other members of the glee club as well, it was his side she was pretty much glued to when she wasn't in some lesson or other and he wasn't helping Burt at the shop. (_Even when she and Puck were dating, he was pretty much always around, and Puck never bitched at him about it, which in hindsight is just another big fat clue that those two were meant to be 'bff's or whatever._)

He knows it's kind of weird – ironic, he guesses – that the only three people from Lima (besides Rachel's dads, of course, since he'd basically asked for their permission before even asking her on the first date – it just seemed right after they let him live with them the second half of senior year when Burt and Carol decided to just move to D.C.) who know about them are their exes. It doesn't _feel _weird to them, because Quinn, Finn, and Puck are their best friends.

Okay, yeah, maybe it is kind of weird. Whatever. It works for them. Quinn just sort of always _knows _things. Yeah, she's basically Rachel's sister or something, and he knows Rachel tells her everything, but sometimes he swears she knows things about them that Rachel couldn't possibly have had an opportunity to tell her. It doesn't really bother him, because she really has become a great person since high school and she means the world to Rachel and that's really all that matters to him.

Things were kind of weird with Finn at first. To be honest, Finn wasn't all that upset with him when he told him he had feelings for Rachel. He wasn't thrilled, of course, but he knew he'd set himself up for her moving on eventually, and he swore that he'd rather see her with Sam, who he knew would be good – better than good – to her than some New York asshole who might not appreciate her. The problem was Rachel. The girl was _pissed_. She and Sam weren't together, not even close to it, actually, the first time she and Finn saw each other again, but they were best friends. Rachel was home for the winter holiday break and the two of them were at Puck's house waiting for his mom to get home so he'd be off babysitting duty and they could go sledding. She was watching some Disney Channel movie with Sarah while the guys did, well, nothing really, in the kitchen when the doorbell rang. He and Puck just kind of stared at each other, because they didn't have a clue who the hell it would be, and finally Rachel said she would get it and they heard her little shoes clicking over the entryway floor. The clicking stopped and about five seconds later, both boys jumped at the sharp, "Sam, Noah, I'm leaving. I don't need a ride. I'll call Quinn and she'll pick me up … somewhere." The door slammed and by the time they made it to the front of the house, Finn was just standing there, a little shell-shocked. It wouldn't be the last time she would storm out of a room Finn was in, and it took a long time before they could even get her to talk to him. She did, finally, and then it took even longer for them to even start being friends again. It probably would have all just faded away, their history swept under the rug, if it hadn't been for Sam. He wouldn't let her pretend Finn never happened, partly because he knew she would regret it eventually and partly because he was starting to develop feelings for her at that point and Finn was still his best friend, so he thought it would be good if they could, you know, be in the same room. Now they can not only be in the same room, but even do it if he's not there, and sometimes when Finn calls she'll answer his phone if he's busy and talk for a few minutes. She's always smiling when she hands the phone over, so he thinks things have worked out pretty well.

Puck is … well, the Puck thing is weird. Finn is his best friend, but Puck is his bro. Make sense? Okay, when Sam first got to McKinley, when Finn was being jealous of him, then basically nice, then stealing his girlfriend, Puck was just being _Puck_. He did stupid stuff like imply Sam's mouth was a black hole or something, and called him ridiculous names, and even actually somehow believed that Sam was helping both Quinn and Kurt cheat on their boyfriends (_seriously, what the hell?_), but it never actually felt mean or anything, even when they fought. And Puck was always there for him. So he was kind of Sam's best friend long before Finn was, and now it kind of seems wrong to use the same term to describe what each of them is to him, because they're not the same.

Then there's Puck and Rachel, and, well, he doesn't really know how to begin with them. You'd think two people with their history would have some kind of awkwardness or something, but not those two. Like, sometimes Sam gets that little twisting feeling in his stomach when he hears Rachel tell _Noah _that she loves him, but it's always in the same voice she uses to tell her dads or his sister, which is totally different from the voice she uses when she says it to him. And right after, she always comes to him and wraps her arms around whatever part of him she can reach at the moment and nuzzles her cheek against him and tells him she loves him in _his _voice, so that pretty much fixes it.

It is kind of unnerving having two of Rachel's ex-boyfriends there in the background all the time telling him how much he's screwed up every time they argue over any little thing and threatening to do really bad things to him if he ever hurts her, but he deals. And the one time they got in a real fight, one that was over something actually important and lasted longer than 30 minutes, she stormed off to Puck's and he humored her until she asked for a blanket so she could spend the night in his living room. "Hell no," he'd told her. "You wanna sleep on a fuckin' couch, that's fine, but it's gonna be your own, not mine. I'm not helpin' you screw things up. Go home, and I don't wanna hear from you again until you and Evans fix this shit." She did come home but she didn't sleep on the couch, and Sam realized that for all the shit Puck talks when Rachel's whining about something like him 'not caring enough' to unload the dishwasher while she's at work, he's still Sam's bro when it comes down to it, which is awesome. (_He's just Rachel's, too._) Sometimes when Rachel and _Noah _are together or sharing some little inside thing he doesn't get, he gets this little jealous feeling, and he's not sure exactly which one of them he's jealous of. Then he usually grabs Rachel and whispers something equal parts dirty and dorky in her ear (because she loves that he's kind of a dork and that always gets her squealing and squirming against him) to get the sound of Puck calling him a 'pussy' out of his head.

So basically, Finn's his best friend, Quinn's hers, and Puck, well, they share him.

But now, their little secret isn't going to be a secret much longer. And, okay, it's probably not even right to call it a 'secret.' It's not like they've been actively hiding it from anyone. It's just that those three are the only ones they've really kept in touch with since Sam graduated and he and Puck moved to New York, which also happened to be about the same time Rachel stopped going home for every single break. Rachel never really got over the way Kurt and Mercedes treated her after Finn left, not that he can blame her, and though they were all nice to each other whenever they were in the same place, it was never the same as it had been. And the others, well, they all just kind of drifted apart like they had tried to convince themselves wouldn't happen to them. Now though, one of their own is getting married, and every member of New Directions from his junior year RSVPed like, a week after he came home to find his living room covered in cardstock and envelopes and tissue paper while Rachel, Quinn, and Puck assembled and stuffed invitations. Quinn looked up at him like he was holding the biggest freakin' tiara ever made, complete with real diamonds, when he walked in, but he tried to get out of it, saying that if the groom wasn't helping, there was no reason he should have to. "Alex is at work right now making money to support himself and his future bride, Sam," Rachel had scolded.

"If I'm helpin', you're helpin', now sit your ass down and grab a sponge," Puck had grumbled from where he sat between the two girls, sealing the envelopes once everything was in place. (Apparently they had tried to let him actually put an invitation in an envelope, but there was some sort of tissue paper disaster and he got demoted to adhesive duty. Sam was pretty sure he did it on purpose.)

Anyway, now they're in their room packing for the flight that leaves at some stupidly early hour the next morning, and Rachel is rolling her eyes as she hangs up with Puck after telling him that no, he absolutely cannot skip the ceremony and just 'rock out' the reception just because it's going to be a Christian ceremony (yeah, Sam knows he just thinks it'll be boring, and that he hates being in a situation where he's _expected _to display some particular emotion), and Sam's gone from excited about the trip to insanely nervous in about .3 seconds. He's still happy about the wedding, because he thinks Quinn and Alex are great for each other, and he wants Q to be happy. Also, Rachel looks incredible in her bridesmaid dress. But it's just really sinking in to him that _everyone _is going to be there. And he's seen them as a group a couple times since he graduated, and he's even seen a few of them once or twice since he and Rachel started dating, but it was for like, 10 minutes in the grocery store while Rachel was still in New York and he was only passing through Lima to see her dads on his way to Kentucky to visit his own folks, and the topic of _them _never came up. So he just feels like it might get a little bit weird.

"Hey," he looks up from that one really weird knot in the hardwood floor and sees that Rachel is standing a foot or so in front of where he's sitting on the foot of the bed, smiling like she's a little amused, "you still with me?"

He reaches for her hips and parts his knees as he pulls her forward so she can stand between them. "Always, pretty girl." He kisses her stomach over her shirt and rests his forehead between her ribs.

"Would you like to tell me what's going on in there?" She slides her fingers through his hair, and he smiles against her because he will never not love how that feels.

Sam sits up straight and tugs on her hips until she's sitting on one of his thighs, her arm draped over his shoulders and her knees between his legs. He closes one hand over her knee and squeezes a little. "I'm just nervous. About the wedding."

"_You're_ not getting married," Rachel giggles. He squeezes that really ticklish spot just above her hip. "Sorry," she breathes out once she's mostly stopped laughing, "what are you nervous about?" Her head is cocked a little to the side and her eyes are really soft and he knows she's through teasing.

"They've never seen us together," he shrugs.

"We were attached at the hip for two summers. They've seen us together plenty." She lifts the hand that was kind of hanging off his shoulder to play with his earlobe. He told her a long time ago that his mom taught him this stress-relief thing where you kind of pinch your ear between your thumb and forefinger and run them from the top to the bottom, and now she does it whenever she thinks he's stressed or upset or nervous about something. He loves her a little more for it.

"Rachel," he groans. He wishes she was taking him a little more seriously right now.

"Sorry. I'm not trying to trivialize something that is important to you, I promise," she presses her lips to his hair at his temple and he has to smile. "I just don't think you have anything to be nervous about."

He scoffs. "Easy for you to say. You're not the one who stole Finn Hudson's girl."

"Neither are you. You've got Sam Evans's girl."

She's grinning, and he knows she's trying to help, but he still feels like she's not taking this as seriously as he would like, so he uses both hands to lift her off his lap and set her down beside him. He brings his arms back to rest on his thighs and leans forward a little.

"I'm sorry." She's running her hand up and down his spine and _this _is why they never have real fights. He just can't. "I didn't realize you were this serious about it. I meant it when I said you don't have anything to be nervous about. We're 25 years old. We're in a committed relationship. Either they accept that or they don't. And if they don't, well, it doesn't really matter, because we'll attend a beautiful wedding, then see our friends off for their lovely honeymoon, then spend a couple days with my fathers before coming back here to our own life with only the people who really matter."

"I just keep thinking about Kurt and Mercedes, and they were so awful to you," he turns toward her a little and wraps an arm around her waist to pull her closer to him, "and I don't want to deal with that again. I don't want you to go through that again."

"I love you," she whispers, then kisses his cheek right in front of his ear, "and I love that you care so much, but the funny thing is, I don't. I was a kid then. A lonely, scared, broken-hearted girl. And I let them break my heart even more than it already was. And, you know, if it hadn't been for you and Noah and Quinn, I would have let them break _me. _But I didn't, and I'm not any of those things anymore. And I still have you, and we still have Noah and Quinn, and – _hey_," she slides her palm over his cheek and turns his head to face her when she catches him staring down at the floor again, "now we have Finn, too, right?" He looks at her out of the corner of his eye and smiles a little, nods. "Right. So, if the rest of them have a problem then … then … well," she hesitates, "fuck 'em!"

Sam starts to laugh, a deep, hearty laugh that quickly takes over his whole body, and he wraps both arms around Rachel and pulls her with him, giggling, as he falls back onto the bed. "I have _got _to stop letting you spend so much time with Puck," he tells her once they have both calmed down.

~.~

Finn is waiting in baggage claim at the Columbus airport when Sam, Rachel, and Puck arrive. He grabs Sam first, then Puck, and pulls them both into this half-shake, half-hug thing they always do 'cause they're guys, then just looks at Rachel a little sheepishly, playing with the zipper of his jacket, until she rolls her eyes with a grin and opens her arms to him. He hugs her so tight her feet come off the ground a little then spins her around in a full circle before setting her back down. "It's so damn good to see you guys," he says once Rachel has fallen against Sam and tucked herself under his arm.

"Good to see you too, man," Sam tells him as they walk toward the exit. "How's Louisiana?"

"Hot as hell," Finn laughs. "And humid, and there's bugs everywhere, and a lotta time it smells funny. Sucks, dude."

"The girls are hot though, right?" They roll their eyes at Puck's basically irrelevant question and walk a little faster as Finn points in the general direction of his mom's car. "I'm serious!" he calls after them. "Ya, know, little southern belles or whatever. That's hot!"

It's no surprise to anyone that Rachel is a drama queen. And anything that will put her as the center of attention, she's all over that. A big dramatic entrance, oh, that's like crack to her. But this? Sam's pretty sure he loves it even more than she does. There's just something about the whole set-up that screams 'old-school superhero,' and well, that's like crack to him. He knows it's a little over the top, and as nervous as he already is about introducing he and Rachel as a couple to their old friends, they should really probably be making a more low key entrance. Whatever, it just kind of happened. Yeah, he may have noticed in the entryway that it was going to happen and didn't stop it, but oh well. He just hopes someone has a camera ready, because he's pretty sure if he can get his hands on a picture of this moment, he can do a little work and make them look like they just stepped straight out of a cell in a comic book.

Rachel's the only one who knows that he's nervous and why, but Puck definitely knows something's up just because he knows the two of them so well. So when they're getting ready to walk into the sanctuary of Quinn's mom's church for the rehearsal, Rachel sidles right up next to him and wraps one arm securely around his waist. He ducks to drop a kiss onto the top of her head, because it's those little things that always make him feel better, and when he lifts his head, he sees Puck on her other side holding her hand and looking straight ahead. He's pretty sure Finn has no clue that this is a really big moment for him, but he's still standing there on his other side, smiling down at him and waiting to walk through the doors with the three of them. Finn and Puck push open the double doors and the four of them walk into the sanctuary, shoulder to shoulder and heads held high, Sam and Rachel in the middle with their arms wound around one another and Finn and Puck on either side. Sam likes to think maybe it's a little brighter in the entryway than the sanctuary so that they look a little bit backlit as they walk in, just adding to the heroic (if somewhat cheesy) image they must be projecting.

"So you and Trouty, huh?" Santana's grinning as she takes a handful of fries out of the basket in front of Rachel when all the old New Directions members are together at the restaurant in the bowling alley after the rehearsal. "How'd _that _happen?"

"Geez, Santana, you make it sound so shocking. I'm not sure if I should be offended for myself or for him. Or," it's funny, because Sam can see her rolling her eyes from all the way across the room, "knowing you, probably for both of us."

The thing is, their big entrance might have looked cool (Sam was really going to have to check around and see who had cameras), but it was actually kind of anti-climactic, because everyone just turned and looked at them, smiled and waved a little, then went right back to what they were doing. Brittany actually asked Rachel while Quinn was having some kind of argument with her sister if she and Puck were back together, because, yeah, apparently her holding his hand meant more than the fact that she and Sam were almost wrapped around each other. He wasn't jealous, partly because it was Brittany asking and partly because the way Rachel sputtered out a, "No!" with her eyes all big was hilarious, but mostly just because he just knows he has nothing to be jealous about.

Once the rehearsal was over, the bridal party, minus Rachel, because Quinn swore it was fine that she and Sam hung out with 'the guys' instead, and families of the bride and groom went to some fancy restaurant Sam didn't even realize existed in Lima and all the old New Directions members headed for the bowling alley. Quinn and Alex were going to be joining them as soon as they could get away from the rehearsal dinner, which meant they were going to be there for a while, so the first thing they did was head for the diner, because everyone knows bowling alleys have the best burgers and fries in like, the whole world. Sam and Rachel made kind of an unspoken agreement in the car that they wouldn't shove their relationship in anyone's face, but they certainly weren't going to hide it, either. The guys had pushed several tables together so they could all sit together, and Rachel sat between him and Puck, her hand resting on his thigh under the table. Basically they did exactly what they would do if they were out to dinner with friends back in New York. And still no one noticed. Until Mike saw that he and Artie both needed refills, which led to Brittany asking him to get her a refill, which led to Tina noticing that she was almost out of Coke as well, and before he knew it, Puck was tugging on his sleeve to get him to get up and come help him, Mike, and Finn get refills for the entire table. Rachel handed him her cup as he stood, and he pretended to be annoyed about it for about half a second before he grinned and leaned down to kiss her before he walked away.

So now, he's standing beside the pop fountain while Mike refills all the cups, because somehow he just remembers what everyone was drinking and which cup belongs to whom, and he and Puck are watching while Santana grills his girlfriend and the others watch like it's the hottest new reality show on tv.

"Whatever. You can't tell me that back in high school you ever saw yourself with him. You can't be pissed at me for being surprised."

"Well, no, back then Sam _wasn't _the boy I saw myself ending up with." He grins when her eyes dart over to find him and she does that little almost-smile thing she does. "But he is the man I'm with now, and he makes me happy."

"I bet," that smile on Santana's face never means anything good. "You know, I never got to find out just what those fishy lips could really do, south of the border, I mean. Are they amazing, or do they just get in the way?"

"Santana!" And now Rachel's face is a shade of red that usually only Puck can invoke. "I … That's … It's not … You have a girlfriend!"

Puck's laughing so hard he can barely stand upright, and Finn's kind of grabbing at his arm like he's scared or something, and finally Mike says, "Hey man, you gonna save your girl, or just let Satan eat her alive?"

"Hey, pretty girl!" And no, he doesn't usually use that name in public. He said it once in front of Puck when they were over at his place watching a movie and Rachel fell asleep on the couch and he was trying to get her up to go home, and Puck wouldn't let it go for like a month. But she _is _pretty. And she's his girl. So it works. Besides, he thinks she could probably use the comfort of hearing it at the moment. (And Puck's still laughing so hard Sam's pretty sure he didn't even hear him.) Her head darts up and she's looking at him like he's her savior or something. He could really get used to that look. "Wanna come give us a hand?" She looks like a bobblehead she's nodding so hard, and she almost trips on Brittany's purse in her hurry to get away from the table. She also 'accidentally' steps on Puck's foot (way harder than any other step she's taken) just before she stops in front of Sam and buries her face in his chest.

"Oh. My. _God_," she whines as Sam's hands slide over her hair and down her back. "Can you _believe _her?"

"Yes," he laughs with his chin resting on top of her head. "She's Santana, girly, what did you expect?"

"I don't know," she groans, "I hoped, maybe …"

"And think, yesterday I was the nervous one." He laughs as she pulls one hand from between them to smack his shoulder.

"That's cool guys, I'm happy for ya," Mike lifts his chin at him then leans down to kiss the back of Rachel's head when he starts back toward the table with Finn and Puck just behind him. "Hey, grab those last couple drinks when you come back, will ya?"

"I'm not going back. I'm not. I can't face them after what she just said."

"Oh, come on," he turns so that only one arm is still around her and she's tucked into one side so he can grab the two remaining cups off the counter with his other hand. "No one takes that stuff seriously when it comes from her, and look," he nudges her head with his shoulder, "they're all paying attention to Puck now anyway."

Rachel looks up and, sure enough, Puck is slouched down in his chair, smirking cockily and making gestures that let Sam know he's probably telling the story of the crazy girl who tried to follow him home last week after a show he did at a bar downtown. (_He led her to a building he'd done some work in a month or so back and slipped behind a door that led to a maintenance room with a back exit. She was __**seriously **__crazy._)

They've finally moved from the diner to the lanes, and they're playing boys against girls, taking up four lanes. Sam's dropping into a chair after a spare when he hears Mercedes asking Rachel just how _they _happened. He knows Rachel can take care of herself, but this is Mercedes, and on top of the fact that she's his ex – not that he thinks she still wants him or anything, but still, it could be awkward – he still hasn't completely forgiven her from before, even if Rachel is talking and smiling at her like they're all good. (He notices it's not the same smile she gives Brittany or Tina, so he knows she's forgiven, but definitely not forgotten.) The conversation seems pretty harmless so far, but he's going to listen anyway, just in case. Apparently Puck has the same idea, because he just got up and walked away from Blaine in the middle of whatever story the other man was telling to sit in a chair that's back-to-back with the chairs in the girls' lane.

"He was my best friend," Rachel smiles down at her hands as she talks. "I felt like my whole world was falling apart," he doesn't miss the way she looks up at Mercedes for a second before smiling a little wider and looking over at Tina and Sugar, "and he kept me together." Sam can't help but smile when Puck looks at him out of the corner of his eye and smirks. "And we were best friends for a long time – years – before anything else happened. Then one weekend during our senior year, Quinn was visiting from New Haven, and she was staying with me, so the boys -,"

"The boys?"

She turns to Brittany and smiles, "Sam and Noah. The boys stayed over the night before she left."

"Wanky," Santana smirks. Sam rolls his eyes and he sees Puck do the same. Puck likes to talk a big talk, but Sam knows he would never touch Quinn or Rachel like that anymore.

To her credit, Rachel manages to almost completely ignore Santana's interruption, blushing a little and continuing with her story. "Quinn was in the guest room finishing her packing and I was cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast. Sam came in to help me, and things were always so _easy _with him, so we're laughing, and he's reaching over me to put away a mug and Noah comes to the doorway and says, 'Why don't you two just date already?' I guess he knew something I didn't, because I looked at him like he was crazy and I was just waiting for Sam to jump away from me and tell him he was nuts, but Sam just looked down at me and said, 'Why don't we?'"

Sam watches the way the other girls look at her, like they're waiting for the rest, before Santana finally says, "That's it?" Rachel nods and Santana drops her head back like Rachel is exhausting her. (He actually loves that she doesn't go into more detail than that. He kind of feels like the rest just belongs to them and should stay private.) "God, midget, you manage to make even the good stuff boring." Rachel glares at her a little before Santana gets up to take her turn and someone asks Brittany something about her cat, and just like that, they've all moved on.

"You're welcome," Puck thrusts his fist out for a bump on his way over to retake his seat next to Blaine and Sam just grins as his knuckles hit his friend's.

~.~

It had been a really long day. He, Rachel, and Puck had gotten to the airport entirely too early for Sam's taste (_and really, their flight wasn't __**that**__ early, but Rachel fully believes that you have to be checked in and standing in the security line no less than two and a half hours before your flight starts boarding_), then once Finn had picked them up, they'd had to go straight to the church because the Columbus airport is 2 hours from Lima and Quinn scheduled the rehearsal kind of early in the day to be considerate of elderly family members. (_Really she wanted to be able to go out with their friends after, but she just accidentally let that slip one night to Rachel over the phone and no one else was supposed to know that._) When they'd all finished their second game of bowling and he was sprawled out in one of the hard plastic chairs flanked by Puck and Rachel, Finn came over to ask if the three of them wanted to get out of there and Sam couldn't get out of that chair fast enough.

They've already dropped Puck at his mom's house and they're pulling onto Rachel's street, and Sam has never in his life been so happy to see the Berry house. "Hey, um," Finn looks at the two of them in the rearview mirror as he pulls into the drive, "you guys are … you're really good. I'm happy for you."

The thing is, Finn has known about them since, well, before there was a _them, _since Sam told him as soon as he started to care about Rachel in a way that was different from the way he cared about, say, Quinn. It just seemed like the right thing to do. Respect, you know? But this is the first time Finn's ever actually seen them as a couple. Finn's in the Army, which means he's lived in Georgia, then Kentucky, and now Louisiana, and Rachel and Sam have lived in New York since each of them graduated. Getting all of them in the same place at the same time has gotten increasingly difficult over the years as Finn's moved up in rank, and Rachel's become more in-demand as a performer, and Sam started working a 'real' job. They've only all been together, usually with Puck and Quinn, a handful of times since Sam graduated, and not at all since he and Rachel decided to be more than friends. It's not like he _needed _Finn's approval or anything. Lord knows he's not about to break up with Rachel or something insane like that if Finn says he doesn't like it. Still, it's a nice thing to hear.

"Thanks man." Sam reaches between the front seats to clap Finn on the shoulder. "That means a lot." He looks over at Rachel, and she's biting her lip and twisting her fingers together on her lap and he knows she's trying to hold herself back from doing something.

She doesn't succeed. She starts to reach for the door, but before her hand quite gets there, she changes her path and leans forward instead, wrapping both arms around Finn's shoulders and the front seat of the car. She cranes her neck around the headrest and kisses his cheek softly.

Generally speaking, Sam's not a jealous guy, in case that wasn't already obvious just based on all the Puck stuff. It's not really a trait you can afford to have when your super hot girlfriend spends her nights on stage making out with other guys (_over half of whom actually are straight, contrary to popular belief_). Still, everybody has a breaking point (like that time one of her costars tried to kiss her offstage – she took care of that one herself though, and the guy had to let his understudy stand in for him the next night because he still wasn't walking quite right). Sam doesn't think, given the history with Finn and his girlfriends and kissing – even with him right there – or the history between Finn and Rachel, that it would be unreasonable for him to be a little upset about that kiss. He's not though, mostly because he knows Rachel loves him and he really doesn't have anything to be jealous of, but also because just before she sits back and lets him tug her out of the car, she presses her cheek to Finn's and sighs with this content little smile on her face that he knows means they're finally the kind of friends she's always wanted them to be, even if she spent the first two or three of the last eight years being angry at him and the rest of that time just getting over that (he could have been worried at the time about what that meant for him, but he knew it was way more about a feeling of betrayal than any other kinds of feelings for Finn). He's just happy she's happy.

They're walking up the sidewalk, carrying their bags, when he sees her dads peeking through the foyer blinds. For a second, he thinks that he knows how Finn must have felt in high school, but he pushes that though away as fast as possible, because he might not be jealous, but that doesn't mean he wants to think about Finn and Rachel together. He knows he could be really intimidated by the way they're looking at them, and maybe he should be, but he's not. He loves Rachel's dads, honest-to-God loves them, and not just because they're her dads. Sure, as far as girlfriends' dads go, they're awesome. But more than that, they brought him into their home for about nine months and treated him like he was their own. Seriously, Rachel came home for spring break and that summer after he graduated, and they really did treat him almost exactly the same as they treated her.

She tilts her head up when they get to the door and gives him that _look_, the one where she's not quite smiling with her mouth but her eyes are a little squinty and sparkling like crazy, so he leans down and presses his lips to hers gently, lingering for a few seconds before he pulls away. "Love you pretty girl," he whispers against her lips, laughing when she keeps her eyes closed and just nods in reply.

Hiram flings the door open just as he's readjusting the duffel bag over his shoulder and reaching for the handle. "Hiram!" LeRoy scolds from a few steps behind his husband, "You could have at least let them open the door on their own."

"I'm sorry, I'm just so excited! Our kids are home!" He looks at Rachel without turning his head and he can tell she can't decide whether to be embarrassed or fling herself at her dad.

"Yes, well, I'm excited too, but you could give them a moment to breathe."

"Shush, LeRoy. So, how was your flight?"

"Oh, you didn't have any problems with security, did you?" Suddenly LeRoy is less concerned about giving them time to breathe, because he's standing right next to Hiram and tugging at the rolling suitcase in Rachel's hand.

"Are you hungry? We have food."

"Did you have any trouble with traffic in Columbus? I wouldn't think so, at the time you got in, but you never know, with construction and such."

"Oh! How was the rehearsal? Was Quinn beautiful? I bet she was beautiful."

"Oh Hiram, it's not like it was the wedding."

"No, but still, she's a lovely girl. Besides, it's just good manners to ask after the bride."

"Well yes, but if you know she's a lovely girl, it's safe to assume that she looked as such." And suddenly it's as if the men have forgotten that 'their kids' are standing there because they're turned directly toward one another bickering about Quinn's 'loveliness,' of all things. Sam's holding his fist over his mouth in case a chuckle slips out. Rachel looks less amused.

"Stop!" Even Sam jumps a little when she snaps at them. She waits until both her fathers are looking at her before she continues. "No, we're not hungry. We ate at the bowling alley. The flight was fine, daddy, and so was traffic. Yes, Quinn was lovely, as always. And I know she'll be a stunning bride. Tomorrow. Tonight, and I feel safe in speaking for Sam when I say this, it's been a very long day and we are exhausted."

Both men look stunned, but neither of them says anything about the little outburst, and Sam wonders, not for the first time, how Rachel seems to manage to get away with like _everything_ and not come off as a total spoiled brat all the time. (_Yeah, okay, she has her moments, he knows that, but overall she's really awesome and considerate of other people and all that stuff, even if some of the stuff she says doesn't quite come out that way._)

"Right," Hiram says, nods a little to LeRoy, "right. Well, we've got both your rooms all ready for you." Sam's trying not to let his face give away the fact that he's like, doing math in his head, because her dad just said 'both,' and 'rooms,' plural. "Princess, your room's exactly as you left it. Now Sam, I'm sorry, but we did have to change some things in your room to make it a more universally inviting guest room again, but we've tried to fix it so that you'll feel as much at home as possible."

Sam's just kind of dumbfounded because, well, they're adults. He's 24 years old, and Rachel's 25, and they _live _together, for goodness sakes. He's not going to say anything though, because they're Rachel's dads and they're in their house and his parents raised him to be more respectful than that. That doesn't mean he likes it, though. And Rachel doesn't like it either, he can tell. She's got her hands tucked behind her back, probably so her dads won't see the way they keep clenching, and she's breathing hard through her nose and he _knows _she's going to say something any second. He shuffles a little closer to her and reaches behind her to close one hand over both of hers, his thumb running over her knuckles to try to calm her. No, he does not want to sleep down the hall from her with two closed doors between them, but he'll deal, and he doesn't want her getting into a fight with her dads over it.

But just when he's about to open his mouth to tell them that's fine and he'll see them in the morning so he can slip upstairs to 'his' room before things get any more bizarre, he hears this little noise and looks up to see LeRoy trying to stifle a chuckle. The man has the worst poker face ever, and before he can help it, Sam is grinning and shaking his head.

"Dammit, LeRoy," Hiram is rolling his eyes and shaking his head, "we were going to play this one straight! I wanted to hear the outburst."

"Oh Hiram, how many times do we have to have this conversation? We both know neither of us is capable of playing anything _straight_."

Rachel's still seething, he can tell, but now it's because they actually managed to pull that one over on her and she hates being tricked.

"Okay, fine. The kids probably want to be getting to bed anyway and don't have time for our silliness." He turns back toward Sam and Rachel and offers this little smile that Sam has seen far too many times on Rachel's face and he can feel her melting next to him (_which is exactly what happens to him when she throws that smile his way_). "Go on up to Rachel's room, _both _of you. We'll catch up in the morning."

He can still hear them laughing as he carries his and one of Rachel's bags up the stairs. He really loves this family.

~.~

The wedding was really nice, and not just because he got to look at Rachel the whole time in that goldish bridesmaid dress that looked really incredible against her skin. Quinn was a beautiful bride and she and Alex seemed really happy. Nothing went wrong and it was just really, really nice.

Now, they're all in the reception hall and Rachel and Quinn are dancing together and it would be ridiculous how seriously they're taking it if it wasn't so cute. Sam laughs when Quinn spins Rachel then pulls her in to dip her. So far, he hasn't danced with Rachel at all and Puck keeps telling him how lucky he is for getting out of it, but he really does want to dance with her a few times before it's all over.

He sees Puck at the bar in the back of the room and heads that way. There's something he needs to talk to him about, and the timing isn't the best, but he's been putting it off for a really long time and he feels like he needs to just get it out there. Like now. Besides, he knows himself and Puck well enough to know that if for some reason the conversation takes a bad turn, neither one of them will do something stupid at Quinn's wedding reception. (And yeah, he feels a little like a dick for basically using her wedding like that, but sometimes you just do what you gotta do.)

He steps up behind Puck just as he's taking his drink from the bartender and winking at her and drops an arm over his shoulders before he gets a chance to walk away. "Hey man, uh, can we talk for a minute?" He jerks his head toward the empty table just to the side of the bar. "I need to um, I need to ask you something." When Puck turns to him he's wearing a smirk and Sam knows he's about to say something particularly asshole-ish, but he takes one look at Sam's face and changes his mind, nodding instead and walking over to take a seat at the table.

"What's up?" Puck slides down into the seat a little so that his legs are stretched in front of him and one arm hangs off the back of the chair, the other resting on the table and his hand turning his glass so that the ice swirls through the liquid inside.

Sam takes the seat closest to Puck and leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees, his hands picking at the tablecloth. "It's just … I wondered … Well, I was thinking about …"

"Jesus Evans, spit it out already."

Sam takes a deep breath before doing just that. "Did you sleep with Rachel?" He knows he could just as easily have asked Rachel, except that, really, he couldn't. He just … _couldn't_.

And then Puck spits it out. Well, his drink. He spits his drink all over the top of the table.

"The fuck, dude!" Puck leans toward Sam and whispers hoarsely, his eyes widening and darting around the room.

"Did you -,"

"I heard you Evans," he grabs the seat of his chair between his knees and drags it with him as he moves closer to Sam. "Shit."

"I just …" Sam lowers his eyes, refuses to make eye contact. "I need to know."

"This isn't fuckin' happening," Puck mutters, setting his glass roughly on the table and pressing the index and middle fingers of each hand into his temples. "Look at me, Evans. _Now_," he growls when Sam doesn't look up right away. "Rachel didn't cheat on you. She wouldn't. And I -,"

"No!" Sam jumps a little bit and shakes his head violently from side to side. "No, I know that. I didn't mean – I meant when you were dating. Did you sleep together when you were dating?"

"Seriously?" Puck narrows his eyes and looks at him in disbelief. "That was eight years ago. You're asking me this shit now?"

"I need to know, Puck."

"Now? You need to know _now_?"

Sam makes it a point to look Puck directly in the eye. "Yes. Now."

Puck lifts his glass to his lips and downs about three-fourths of his drink in one swallow before sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. "Me and Rachel never had sex."

"Really?" And it's not that Sam thinks his friend would lie to him or even that he doesn't believe him, but, well, it _is_ kind of hard to believe.

"Really. Didn't even try." Puck brings his hands down to run over the tops of his thighs. Sam is still looking at him in either disbelief or confusion, so he shrugs. "I knew if I tried she'd say yes."

"That makes no sense whatsoever."

Puck sighs and rolls his eyes because, of course, it makes perfect sense to him, and he doesn't want to have to explain himself. "Look, I love Rachel, okay." He closes his eyes and shakes his head a couple times. "I mean … Whatever. You know what I mean. Anyway, I love her, but I knew it wasn't gonna last. I knew we weren't some long-term thing, and it just didn't feel right. I knew she would do it, 'cause she was vulnerable or whatever, but that woulda just made things even worse for her and I didn't want that."

That really doesn't make any sense to Sam. Okay, so maybe the part about not wanting to have sex with Rachel when he knew they weren't in it for the long haul makes sense, given what he knows about how much Puck cares for her. But that really just makes him wonder why Puck was even with her in the first place, or at least why he stayed with her for even a couple months if he knew it was just going to end like that. "So … why'd you stay with her then? I mean, it's almost like you were just waiting for her to break up with you."

Puck shrugs. "Kinda was." Sam opens his mouth to ask more questions, then closes it again, closing his eyes and shaking his head. "But," Puck starts again, "you don't break up with somebody who's like, above you, ya know? I was gonna ride that train as far as it would take me."

"Puck, she's – you're not-,"

"No. Hear me out. I know she's not perfect. I'm not sayin' that. She's got a lotta faults, and nobody knows 'em better than me and you. But, at the time, I was convinced I was a Lima Loser and we all knew where she was headed." He chuckled. "S'not like she ever let us forget. Everybody needs a rebound, though, right? And I figured, Lima Loser or not, I cared about her and I was gonna treat her right, so that made me a way better option for a rebound than some random guy she'd meet in like, her English 101 class, or even worse, Jesse St. James. I know it prob'ly sounds weird or whatever, but I was just tryin' to look out for her."

"That's," Sam pauses, thinking of exactly what he wants to say, "really cool." Puck only shrugs then swallows the rest of his bourbon and stands to walk away.

"Oh," he stops after only one step. "One thing though, and it's not even important, but like, semantics or whatever." Sam looks up at him with one eyebrow lifted. "You asked me if me and Rach ever slept together. I told you we never had sex. We have slept together though. Ya know, without anything like, dirty, going on. Plenty of times. So, like I said, semantics and shit."

"Puck," Sam laughs. "I came home from work last week to find you two spooning on my couch. I think I can live with that."

~.~

"How was the wedding?" Hiram Berry's voice floats down the hall to meet Sam and Rachel before they even get the front door closed behind them.

"It was great, Papa, really lovely." Rachel heads straight for the stairs as Sam lingers behind to lock up and put their jackets away in the hall closet. "But it's been a long day and I'm really tired so I'll just see you in the morning." By the time she is finished talking, she's at the top of the stairs. Sam sticks his head into the living room to tell her fathers that he will be back soon then follows after her.

"Rachel," he closes the door behind him when he gets to her old room and rests his weight against it. "You're not drunk. You could have gone in and had a conversation with your dads."

It takes a minute, but finally she steps out of the closet holding a robe that he can tell was something she had to have had in high school in one hand and plants the other firmly on her hip. "I've been drinking, Sam. I'm not about to go sit and have a casual conversation with my fathers when I've been drinking."

"Rachel," he laughs and shakes his head a little, "you only -,"

"I'm going to take a bath."

Right, so conversation over, then. And yeah, sometimes it bothers him when she does that – just ends things like her word is law or whatever – but as long as it's not something truly serious, he just thinks it's pretty funny. It's just one of those 'Rachel-isms' or something. He knows he has them too.

"Ok then silly girl," he steps away from the door to reach behind him and rest his hand on the knob. "I'm going to go visit with them for a little while, then I'll be back. Enjoy your bath."

He has his back to her and is pulling the door open when he hears a soft, "Sammy?" He smiles a little to himself before he turns, and when he does, his small smile grows into a wide grin. She looks so cute, and even smaller than usual, standing there looking up at him through her lashes and playing with her own fingers in front of her stomach.

"Yeah, pretty girl?"

"I love you."

He takes a few steps to close the gap between them. Like a magnet, his hand is drawn to the side of her neck, his thumb tracing the line of her jaw. "I love you, too," he murmurs, dipping his head to press his lips against hers. He pulls away just a little then leans forward again to peck her on the lips again quickly before turning to leave the room.

"Is she drunk?" LeRoy asks him without even looking up from the magazine he's reading as soon as Sam gets into the living room. "Should I run out and get some hangover food in the morning?"

"No," Sam laughs a little as he drops onto the end of the couch closest to LeRoy's chair, the end opposite the one Hiram is on. "She had two glasses of champagne. But, she's paranoid that you'll _think _she's drunk, so she won't come down."

"Sounds about right," LeRoy chuckles. "That's our Rachel." Sam likes that. _Our _Rachel. It's nice. "So, you tell us then, how was the wedding? Besides lovely."

Sam laughs and hears Hiram do the same beside him. "It was good. Quinn and Alex are good together. Quinn basically ignored her sister the whole time and had Rachel doing all the maid of honor stuff, just to piss her sister off, I think, but no major drama. And Rachel ate that up, of course."

"Of course," LeRoy agrees, closing his magazine and putting it on the end table between them.

"Well," Hiram starts, and Sam turns to face him as he stands, "as much as I hate to say it, because I'm all but admitting to being one of _those _parents, now that you two have made it home safely, I'm going to bed."

Hiram starts to leave the room but Sam stands quickly and clears his throat. "Um, actually, I-I kind of needed to talk to you, if you could stay just a little longer."

Hiram and LeRoy share a look before Hiram grins slyly and looks back at Sam. "Why Sam, are you breaking up with us?"

Sam doesn't catch the joke. "N-no, sirs." He runs his hands over the front of his suit pants as both of Rachel's fathers watch him. "Um, could you maybe come sit back down, please?" Hiram looks down at LeRoy again before going back to retake his seat on the couch. "Thanks." Sam takes a step away from the couch and stops just in front of the television. "I just … I wanted to let you know … Crap, I'm nervous."

"Sam," he focuses on Hiram when he speaks again and sees that he looks much more serious than before, possibly even concerned. "You're not going to break up with _Rachel _are you?"

"_What? _No! No, of course not! That's not – no! It's like, the opposite of that!" He's still staring at Hiram, and he can see that the man has relaxed considerably, but since he's not looking at LeRoy, he doesn't see the smirk on the other man's face.

"Son," Sam whips his head to the left to look at LeRoy when he speaks. He's grinning, and any other time Sam would take a second to try to decipher what that exact look usually means when it's on Rachel's face, but right now, he just can't make his brain work like that. "You want to marry our daughter, don't you?"

Sam feels a rush of air leave his lungs and he wonders how long he's been holding his breath. He's so relieved he can't quite speak, so he just nods.

"Please," he says when he finally finds his voice.

Hiram and LeRoy both laugh. "You say that like it would matter if we said no," Hiram says.

"I, well …"

"It's okay," LeRoy tells him, motioning for him to sit back down, "it shouldn't matter." Sam smiles first at him, then at Hiram, once he's seated again.

"So … Is that a yes?" He lifts an eyebrow and looks from one man to the other. They both laugh, and LeRoy is nodding.

"You've been part of our family for eight years. Our daughter loves you and we know how happy you make her. Yes, it's a yes." Sam jumps up again to hug LeRoy, then Hiram. "Just one thing, though," LeRoy speaks up when Sam's sitting down again. Sam nods. "This isn't just because of the wedding, is it? You don't just want to get married right now because you saw your friends get married, do you? Because it's okay to take things at your own pace, and while we'll be ecstatic to get to have you become our son legally and officially, we understand if you need to wait a while for that to happen. Rachel will understand too if you need more time."

"No!" Sam reaches into his suit jacket to pull his wallet from the interior pocket. "No, I've wanted this for a while. I've actually just been waiting for Quinn's wedding to be over, partly so I could come here and ask you and partly because Puck threatened to kill me if there were two different weddings being planned at the same time." He stops talking as he digs through his wallet to find the ring in the tiny compartment behind his credit card and gym membership id. He pulls it out and holds it out so that Rachel's fathers can see the ring he bought almost six months ago (_**befor**__e Alex proposed, actually, so thank God those two wanted a short engagement_).

"Oh, Sam!" Hiram gasps, one hand flying to cover his mouth and the other resting over his heart. "It's _gorgeous_."

"Yes, it certainly is," LeRoy agrees. "But Samuel, it's really not a good idea to carry around a …" he leans forward to study the ring a bit more closely, "Tiffany engagement ring in your wallet."

"No, I know," Sam nods as he tucks the ring back into its hiding spot. "And I don't, normally. Puck's been keeping it for me at his place. I just didn't want to leave it while we were out of town. And I wanted to show it to you guys. Besides, hopefully I won't need to keep it anywhere much longer."

Hiram smiles at him and rests his hand on Sam's knee. "Son, it's a little ridiculous how much our daughter loves you. She's going to say yes."

Sam can't make eye contact with either of them, so he just smiles at his hands and nods.

"Okay," Hiram squeezes his knee a little, "I think we're good here, right?" He looks from Sam to LeRoy, who both nod. "Alright then, bed for me. I'll see you both in the morning."

Once Hiram is gone, Sam tells LeRoy that he is going to head upstairs as well. "Sam," he stops just before reaching the hall that leads to the stairs. "He was right – she'll say yes. Just remember, you're proposing to our Rachel, not Broadway's Rachel. She doesn't need some big flashy, over-the-top proposal. She loves _you_."

Sam turns and nods to LeRoy, but he's not worried. He just got the only part of this he was nervous about out of the way. He's got this.


End file.
